法華傳記 3.10

3.10

釋大乘基者。遍學三藏上足資。三千門徒。七十人達者。四人上首。於中皆最。其母夢。金人手捧如意。願宿爾胎。語已入口即有身。初生之時。紫雲如蓋覆上。九歲出家。十七交緇林。別奉三藏法師玄弉明詔。為門侍譯經論。多以基為筆受。因疏經論一百本。玉華新文盛弘東夏。法相大乘。再照沙界。寔韙基之力也。若闇夜牙齒放光。疏出經論。談遊之隆徒次博陵。道俗課虛命講法華典。乃自纂新文。夕製朝談。奇瑞時時乃現。有人夢。嚴淨佛國。滿中諸佛即來語法師。是製寶塔品疏時也講終疏畢。著一偈云。

Shi Dacheng Ji was the foremost disciple who studied the Tripiṭaka comprehensively. Among three thousand disciples, seventy attained mastery, and four were chiefs, among whom he was supreme in every respect. His mother dreamt of a golden man holding a ruyi scepter in his hand, saying, "I wish to lodge in your womb"; having spoken, he entered her mouth, and she conceived. When he was born, purple clouds covered him above like a canopy. At the age of nine he left home, and at seventeen he joined the monastic community. By special imperial decree, he assisted the Tripiṭaka Master Xuanzang as an attendant at the court translation bureau, often serving as the recorder for translations of sūtras and treatises. Consequently, he commented on one hundred sūtras and treatises; the new texts from Yuhua were widely promoted throughout the Eastern Xia, and the Faxiang Mahāyāna once again illuminated the realm of sand-like worlds—this was truly due to Master Ji's effort. When he wrote commentaries on the sūtras and treatises in the dark night, his teeth emitted light. On his journey of preaching, he reached Boling, where monastics and laypeople made an earnest plea for him to expound the scripture of the Lotus. Thereupon he composed a new commentary, drafting by night and preaching by day; wondrous portents frequently manifested. Someone dreamt of an adorned and pure Buddha-land, filled with Buddhas who came to speak to the Dharma Master; this was when he composed the commentary on the Apparition of the Jeweled Stūpa chapter. When the lectures ended and the commentary was finished, he composed a verse, saying: